Antarctic Cruising with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic

Travel Market Report senior editor Dori Saltzman wrapped up her 2023 with an almost two-week trip to Antarctica with Lindblad Expeditions. The voyage included an afternoon bus tour and overnight in Buenos Aires, a catamaran trip around Ushuaia, and a 10-night cruise onboard National Geographic Explorer, with six full days in the Antarctic.

Here’s what to expect on a Lindblad Expeditions trip to Antarctica.

Inclusions
There are more than a dozen cruise lines to choose from when matching an Antarctic voyage with your clients. Among the many differences between the lines is what’s included in the voyage fare. In some ways, Lindblad is one of the least inclusive lines. In other, it’s quite inclusive.

Like most of the lines in Antarctica, Lindblad includes all meals and most drinks, with only top shelf liquors costing extra.

Also included are tips for crew and expedition staff (though envelopes are put out at the end of the sailing and most people tipped extra), super warm parkas that you get to take home with you, reusable water bottles, and up to two Zodiac cruises or boot-on-the-ground landings per day while in the Antarctic.

Of note, charter flights between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia are not included, and cruisers are required to purchase their charter flights from Lindblad.

Also not included, knee-high rubber boots for landings – you can either buy your own and bring them along, or rent a pair from Lindblad’s Ship-to-Shore program. (You can also rent, waterproof shells and hiking poles – although we found there were plenty of hiking poles to borrow on site without having to pay.)

One thing that is included that some other cruise lines don’t include is kayaking. We had the opportunity to kayak in a place called Holtedahl Bay, among small ice bergs and floating ice. To say it was magical would be a vast understatement.

Itinerary
Unless you’re on a longer sailing that includes the South Georgia Islands, most “standard” Western Hemisphere Antarctic cruises depart from Ushuaia in Argentina, head down to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands and then return to Ushuaia. All such itineraries include two full days transit south via the Beagle Channel and Drake Passage, and two days full transit north.

Few ships cross the Antarctic Circle.

Lindblad is one of the few cruise lines that attempts it. However, as with everything Antarctica cruising related, nothing is set in stone; the itinerary can change from sailing to sailing – though there are standards that ships try to get to – and flexibility is the name of the game. (According to our Captain, only two to three sailings per ship, per season, make it into the Circle.)

On our sailing we crossed the Antarctic Circle on our first full day in Antarctica, which happened to be the December solstice. That day we visited two destinations within the Antarctic Circle: Detaille Island and the Lallemand Fjord.

In the late afternoon, we crossed back over the Circle, heading slightly north for the next day’s stops, which included our first – and only – continental landing at Prospect Point. (We also kayaked that morning in Holtedahl Bay, and did a Zodiac cruise among the so-called Fish Islands.)

The next day we sailed through the Lemaire Channel, a common destination for Antarctic cruises. During our sail-through, we spotted a Ponant ship, and as we were coming out, a Scenic ship was heading in. (FYI, it’s common because it’s stunningly beautiful.)

Another spot that we visited that is pretty commonly visited is Deception Island and Whaler’s Bay in the South Shetland Islands.

Between the Lemaire Channel and the South Shetland Islands, we visited a number of spots along the Antarctic Peninsula, with the remaining landings all on islands.

Generally speaking, when not visiting the two or three more commonly visited spots, Lindblad tries to stop in less visited areas so that guests don’t have to “share” their experience with cruisers on other ships.

On ship experience
Being onboard a National Geographic vessel with Lindblad Expeditions is a little like being in the middle of a Nat Geo documentary. The expedition team comprises naturalists, scientists, technicians, photographers, historians, underwater specialists, and more.

That last one, underwater specialists, is something that’s pretty unique to Lindblad. On our sailing we had two divers taking underwater video that we got to see twice during evening presentations. It was amazing to see what life under the Antarctic waters looks like and learning about the starfish, sea worms, anemone, and more that live out their lives in sub-freezing waters.

Throughout our sailing, either during evening recaps or during afternoon presentations, the expedition team gave lectures about the history of Antarctic exploration and whaling; the wildlife (penguins, whales, seabirds, pinnipeds, lichen and moss, krill); geology, glaciology, and plate tectonics; photography; working in some of the Antarctic research stations; and more.

Our sailing also featured a guest speaker, National Geographic Explorer Jennifer Lopez, a NASA director who talked about the intersection of space exploration and Earth observations, specifically in Antarctica.

For the youngest cruisers (our sailing had 16 kids under the age of 18), there is the National Geographic Global Explorers program, which has its own set of activities that on our sailing ranged from learning how to use a microscope to a kids-only Zodiac cruise in which participants collected plankton to examine under a microscope to painting with watercolors, and more. Because of the large number of kids onboard, the Global Explorers group on our sailing had two naturalists assigned to it. These naturalists are “certified field educators” who have completed a National Geographic-designed field education course.

When cruisers were not in a Zodiac, on land, at a presentation, or eating, there were breaks for napping, reading in one of the lounges, and there’s even a large library of movies to relax with. While keeping one’s eyes on the water is always a good idea to ensure you don’t miss any wildlife, naturalists will often make a ship-wide announcement. That’s how we got to see Orcas and Dusky Dolphins.

Cruisers looking for any type of traditional entertainment will not find it on Lindblad. The closest we came to “entertainment” was a performance by the Spice Boyz & Girlz, a rock band composed of crew members, whose enthusiasm made up for any lack of talent.

Zodiacs & landings
While the onboard experience with Lindblad Expeditions in the Antarctic is educational, it’s the Zodiac and landings that everyone comes to the Continent for.

One thing that is the same for every cruise line sailing to Antarctica is that all plans for Zodiac cruises and landings depend on weather conditions.

Also the same for all cruise lines, landings are limited to no more than 100 people at a time (including the expedition team members). For our cruise, which had 124 passengers onboard, we were split into four groups. Generally, two groups would be out at once, with the second two groups going out after the first groups were back. On occasion, two groups were on land, while two were in Zodiacs.

Zodiac cruises rarely had more than eight people at a time, along with one naturalist to offer information and answer any questions. Landings typically saw about 50 to 60 people on land at a time, with naturalists stationed at key spots and cruisers free to roam around between them. Bright orange cones indicated how far we could go in areas where wildlife were around. 

The off-ship experience starts the morning of the first full day in the Antarctic, and there are always plans for a morning and afternoon activity.

On our sailing we managed four landings and five Zodiac cruises. Of the landings, only one was on the actual continent. (According to our expedition leader, most sailings achieve at least one continental landing.) On top of those, we had a morning of kayaking and an afternoon polar plunge, which gives cruisers the opportunity to jump into calm but sub-freezing waters (for no other reason than to say that they did it – this reporter did not do it).

Two of our Zodiac cruises were originally planned to be landings. In the first case, landing conditions were not safe. In the second, on-site researchers passed on the message that some seals in the area were showing signs of avian flu, which made a landing off-limits for fear cruisers could accidentally spread the disease. In both cases, they were replaced with Zodiac cruises.

Zodiacs and landings are typically anywhere from one hour to two hours long, though they can be cut short if the weather turns.

It’s during the Zodiac cruises and landings that cruisers do most of their wildlife sightings, though our trip’s only leopard seal sighting was during a deep water scenic cruise of Cierva Cove, and we saw lots of porpoising penguins on the sail into Deception Island.

Dining

The final piece of the Lindblad experience in Antarctica is the dining. With three Lindblad ships in the region, the layout of meals might vary, but breakfasts are always buffet style, while lunch and dinner are served.

Both the lunch and dinner menu have an always available section, with a larger always-available range of options at dinner. Menus always have multiple vegetarian options, with several that can easily be made vegan. Dinner features four mains – vegetarian, fish, meat, and a pasta of the day.

The menu ranges from basic to somewhat more refined, though nothing a foodie would ever call gourmet. Quality is high though, and we enjoyed every meal we had. Guests will likely find lots of Spanish and Latin American dishes, along with a few French standards like beef bourguignonne and croque madame, among others.

Service is friendly, and one of our waiters (we sat in the same section every night) quickly got to know my standard drink and salad order. Cruisers expecting white glove service might be disappointed with how slow service can be, and we were not the only cruisers to have orders mixed up.

Overall, dining is not a reason to choose Lindblad – the expedition team, onboard education, and off-the-beaten-path itineraries are.